2. Academic Validation
  3. Enhanced delivery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens to antigen presenting cells using RVG peptide

Enhanced delivery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens to antigen presenting cells using RVG peptide

  • Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2019 May:116S:S34-S41. doi: 10.1016/j.tube.2019.04.009.
Omar Garnica 1,  Kishore Das 1,  Santhi Devasundaram 1,  Subramanian Dhandayuthapani 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Center of Emphasis in Infectious Diseases and Department of Biomedical Sciences, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, El Paso, TX, 79905, USA.
  • 2 Center of Emphasis in Infectious Diseases and Department of Biomedical Sciences, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, El Paso, TX, 79905, USA; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, El Paso, TX, 79905, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 31064713 DOI: 10.1016/j.tube.2019.04.009
Abstract

Among the various strategies to improve vaccines against infectious diseases, targeting of antigens to dendritic cells (DCs), which are professional antigen presenting cells (APCs), has received increased attention in recent years. Here, we investigated whether a synthetic peptide region named RVG, originated from Rabies Virus Glycoprotein that binds to the α-7 subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AchR-α7) of APCs, could be used for the delivery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) peptide antigens to DCs and macrophages. Mouse bone marrow derived DCs (BMDCs) and human THP-1 macrophages stimulated with RVG fused peptide epitopes 85B241 and 85B96 (represent Ag85B241-256 and Ag85B96-111, respectively) from antigen 85B (Ag85B) of Mtb showed enhanced antigen presentation as compared to unfused peptide epitopes and BCG. Further, BMDCs stimulated with RVG fused 85B241 showed higher levels of IL-12 positive cells. Consistent with in vitro data, splenocytes of mice immunized with RVG-85B241 showed increased number of antigen specific IFN-γ, IL-2, and TNF-α producing cells in relation to splenocytes from mice immunized with 85B241 alone. These results suggest that RVG may be a promising tool to develop effective alternate vaccines against tuberculosis (TB).

Keywords

Antigen; Delivery; Dendritic cells; Macrophages; Mice; RVG; Tuberculosis; Vaccine.

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